- Samsung sets its Unpacked date
- It will be on January 22 and in San José.
- Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra expected to be the star of the show
Samsung officially announced the dates for its Winter Unpacked event. The presentation of what we assume is the Samsung Galaxy S25 line will take place on January 22 in San Jose, California.
The company sent out invitations on January 6. Yes, that’s at the start of CES 2025 in Las Vegas, and you can thank us later for realizing it in the middle of all of this.
Last year, the company previewed its latest hardware in Las Vegas in private meetings with journalists during CES 2024. This year, while Samsung will once again have a big presence at what is likely the world’s biggest tech event, it’s unlikely we’ll see a Hardware Preview in Sin City.
Along with a new Galaxy S series, Samsung promises a “more natural and intuitive Galaxy AI” that will “change the way Galaxy users interact with the world.” Overall, we were impressed with Galaxy AI when we tested it last summer with the new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, so it’s a very high bar.
While TechRadar will be present on January 22, you can watch the full event on one of Samsung’s various livestreams on Samsung Newsroom, Samsung.com, and the company’s YouTube channel at 1:00 p.m. ET/10: 00am PT.
New Galaxy phones
Beyond these scant details about the new products, we have some educated guesses about the new flagship Android phones and what other hardware, if any, could be on display.
First of all, we hope this is the launchpad for Samsung’s brightest mobile star: the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.
According to recent rumors, we should expect a new, more curved design, a larger display, and a new Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset. Maybe you’ll get the newly released Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite, which sounds like a very powerful piece of silicon. During last year’s Qualcomm Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii, mobile editor Phil Berne had the opportunity to test the first systems equipped with the new mobile CPU. “The results completely stunned me,” Berne wrote.
However, the biggest story here might be the AI updates, some of which we saw during Samsung’s Summer Unpacked event, where it launched its new foldable line, including the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6. And to support things like the generation of AI images, the Galaxy S25 Ultra could have more RAM than ever,
Naturally, this is all conjecture, and the Galaxy S25 Ultra we finally see could look and perform differently than we expected.
We anticipate at least two more new Galaxy phones, namely the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Plus. Whatever specs they have, they will likely be a subset of the new Galaxy S25 Ultra.
A key difference could be the lack of a high-end or more powerful zoom camera. If the S25 Ultra has a 5X zoom with 50MP, the S25 and S25 Plus could have a 3X zoom with 12MP. If the S25 Ultra gets a better ultrawide (with a higher pixel count), there’s no guarantee the entire lineup will follow suit.
surprise package
We could also see a surprise or two from Samsung. I wonder, for example, if we’ll get the chance to experience Project Moohan, the new Android XR-based mixed reality headset that Samsung, Google, and Qualcomm unveiled last month.
It’s still just a development kit, but we’re eager to put it on and see if the experience is as close to using an Apple Vision Pro as we suspect. Of course, Samsung and its partner Google have said they plan to make this a Gemini AI experience. That alone could set it apart from Apple’s expensive mixed reality headset.
Given that we’ve just seen updates and launches for the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra, Buds 3 Pros, and Galaxy Ring, respectively, there’s unlikely to be any news on those fronts.
Regardless of what Samsung reveals, TechRadar will be there to give you an early look at all the new equipment.
